Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20240622

We begin with a greater involvement by turkey in the fight against isil. The United States and turkey are said to be finalizing plans to create a safe zone along the turkey syria border. Mike viqueira joins us live from washington. What more are you learning about this plan . Reporter for months they couldnt agree on the best tactics to confront isil now theres new cooperation and a new agreement, but turkey has a different agenda and another enemy than the United States. A week ago in the border town turks gather in an anti isil protest. Moments later, tragedy. [ explosion ] reporter amid the chaos, 32 are dead. Isil is respect expected of carrying out the attacks. The next day turks urge the government to do more. Against this backdrop of unrest turkey stepping deeper into the fight against isil. Agreeing to allow Coalition Aircraft to fly out of their air base and the turks have launched their own attacks against isil targets. Now the u. S. And turkey are negotiating a socalled safe zone in syrian territory held by isil. What is under consider is talks are ongoing. Said to be on the table, a 70 High Pressure mile strip along turkeys border with syria, potentially a haven for the roughly 2 million syrians now in turkey. But first isil would have to be pushed out, and despite the longheld desire of the turks, u. S. Officials insist the safe to enwont be a nofly zone. Its almost having the same effect as if there was one, because only Coalition Aircraft are occupying that air space. Theres no other aircraft up there, other than Coalition Aircraft. Reporter but the assad regime does have aircraft. And the u. S. Doesnt want to engage the assad regime. But the turks have their own agenda. They live next door to the kurdish region. So for the turks theres a lot more at stake than just isis. Reporter the first air strikes targeted not only isil but the pkk a group considered to be a terrorist organization. The white house welcomed the new turkish role. I think frankly where this really can lead towards is again a more even even broader and more effective effort to degrade the isil safe haven. Turkey can play an Important Role in those efforts. Reporter the turks have watched as the u. S. Has grown closer to their longtime enemy, the kurds. For the turks, it was time for a change in tactics. If they dont want the United States to rely on the kurds, they better do the job themselves. Reporter about that safe zone tony, it could take months to gets together. First isil has to be pushed out and then the rules of engagement have to be decided on. Who will administer it once it is established. Mike thank you we will much more on turkey later in this hour. At least 13 people including a kenyan diplomat were killed in a bombing in somalias capitol. The front of the fivestar hotel, a popular location for visiting heads of state. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. In neighboring ethiopia president obama has become the first sitting u. S. President to visit the country. He is there to discuss security and Economic Issues but he is also being criticized for visiting a country with a long list of human rights violation. Reporter it is the first visit by a sitting u. S. President to ethiopia one aimed at strengthening relations. Addressing journalists, president obama praised ethiopia as an outstanding partner this the fight against terrorism. Were pushing back against violent extremism. Ethiopia faces serious threats, and its contribution to the African Union mission have reduced areas under alshabab control, but yesterdays bombing in mogadishu, reminds us that terrorist groups like alshabab offer nothing but death and destruction and have to be stopped. Reporter he called on the Prime Minister to improve human rights and Good Governances. Some Rights Groups have chris it issed the trip to ethiopia warning that it could lend credibility to the government. Of all of the Countries Worldwide its only neighboring eritrea that jails more journalists. A number of journal were held on charges of terrorism. Many others remain in custody. The ethiopian leader defended his countrys commitment to human rights. We have demonstrated once again that our commitment to democracy is real not skin deep. We have also noted that we need to step up efforts to strengthen our [ inaudible ] and view our capacity in various areas. We believe the u. S. Support in this regard as ageold democracy will contribute to ensuring that our system becomes robust. We have agreed to continue our engagement despite minor differences here and there, with regard to the speed with which the process is moving. Figures have been reacting to president obamas visit. He never walked his talk for the last six years, so if you dont walk your talk then always giving [ inaudible ] always that Say Something in the dining the wining of dictators, people dont believe you. Reporter waiter on monday president obama joined the leaders in the region to discuss the crisis in south sudan. They urged parties to come to a quick agreement. Options include sanctions on parties and individuals and Regional Intervention force if the warring parties do not agree to a piece deal by august 17th. Jeffery smith is an africa specialist with the organization Robert F Kennedy human rights. Its good to have you on the program. The president urged a stop on political crack continue tos. Was he effective of placing Good Governance concerns at the forefront of the relationship . Yeah absolutely. I think it was very good to hear the president s bring up those issues. Of course as you were hearing in the Previous Report that was just airing ethiopia remains one of the most highly censored countries in the world. Ranked number four actually. So its up there with north korea, saudi arabia and artreeia and they just had parliamentary elections, and the ruling party won 100 of the seats. It was good to hear him mention these issues. The question was he effective. Do you expect anything to come out of raising those issues and pushing the government there in these areas . You know, i think its one thing its its very important to raise these issues but what we have yet to see is actual concrete action. Take for example, president obamas fiscal year 2016 budget request, it includes almost a half a billion dollars of assistance to eat open ethiopia. Last year zero was spent on that vital sector. So while i think its important that the president raise these issues, i think its time we see concrete action as well. Was this trip to ethiopia do you think it was the president legitimizing an oppressive government . What is your view of that . Unfortunately, yeah i would say it is. Ethiopia has been a pioneering model for repressive legislation across the region. It has implemented a raft of draconian laws. Since 2010, 60 journals have fled the country, and 11 independent journalists remain behind bars to this day, while president obama was in the capitol. So its a very dire situation, and unfortunately i dont see it getting any better. I dont think there is real political will within the ruling party in ethiopia currently, and again, i think its great that the president rhetorically spoke to these issues but we need to see concrete action. The president offered up a warning about the dangers of south sudan. Theres clearly an unresolved conflict between ethiopia and eritrea. The pushback i suspect here dont you need a strong and stable ethiopia its not there yet to solidify the horn of africa and if that means not pushing as hard as you would like on human rights that that perhaps is a necessary tradeoff at the moment . Thats a very good question. You know i think when you are talking about south sudan, or whether you are talking about ethiopia i think we only have to look at president obamas words. If you go back to his speech his historic speech in ghana, in 2009 where he said those governments that rule by consent notco coercion are more stable. And i think they often have rising sustainable economies and rising sustainable gdps. Unfortunately were not seeing that in ethiopia. I think there is a myriad of issues that we should be paying attention to and the United States government should be pressing harder on. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. It was a dark monday for chinas stock market. Shares of the shanghai composite index up theabled in their biggest oneday drop in eight years. The drop also raises some real concerns about the Broader Health of the worlds secondlargest economy. Ali velshi is here to break it down for us. Ali, why does all of this matter . I have to tell you, tony i have been on vacation for a while. Its good to have you back brother. Im still fuzzy, and jet lagged. Its been a while since we talked about this. Chinese markets are still relatively high. The shanghai composite is 70 higher than it was last july so just keep that in mind. If the stock market were up 70 , and it took a drive, but 2. 5 of individual wealth is in stocks. The chinese if they invest tend to invest in properties. They are not retail investors, but for chinese policy makers this matters because they have been trying to get people to buy stocks as a way to get Chinese Companies to raise money. Obviously the stock maushth market is a place where companies go to say were taking a risk will you back me. That doesnt exist in china. Chinas stock market needs to be able to stand on its own without Government Intervention and that is what the problem is. It could spell longterm trouble for chinese growth. The only reason you would need to worry about this is because your investments in china are probably bigger than you think. How does a drop like this impact american consumers. First of all, you want to make sure the chinese economy isnt going broke. You want them to be consumers so you can export things to china. China gets prosperity thats good. Now, foreigners own only about 1. 5 of chinese shares so direct exposure is low, but you know americans who are invested in Chinese Markets usually through index funds which are part of your 401ks but most of us are exposed to china if you are exposed to any American Companies. More than half of the revenues of American Companies come from overseas, and a lot comes from china. Apple, cocacola, General Motors is one of the biggestselling cars in china. So thats one of the reasons americans need to be concerned. And the u. S. Dollar is also up by about 2 since the start of this crash in china. It has been going on for a while, by the way. This is just the biggest drop. Investors are looking at the safety of u. S. Markets. Everything that pushes the dollar up makes it harder for american businesses trying to do business in other countries. What else do you have coming up in were talking about china, again, more detail about that and talk about the middle easts biggest conflicts . Im going to tell you about the real narrative on the ground particularly the idea that we have got that everybody there is obsessed with either america or israel. Good to see you brother you can watch ali velshi right here on Al Jazeera America. Comparing the effect of the nuclear deal with iran to the holocaust. He could take the israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven. Oh my the president joins the outrage over Mike Huckabees controversial comments. Plus can troop leaders be gay . Its a major policy decision for the boy scouts of america. Theyre firing canisters of gas at us. Emmy Award Winning investigative series. Chaising bail only on Al Jazeera America being a musician, theres no demand. World renowned artist lang lang the moment youre on stage, its timeless american schools falling flat. There are no music class in the boy scouts of america are voting today on the organizations ban on gay scout leaders. If the ban is struck down, openly gay men will be able to lead the squads. The bsas own research at least 600,000 kids are being kept out of the organization by the parents because of the ban on gay members in the boy scouts. These are straight parents who are allies of the lbgt community. And hopefully this policy change is going to help bring those kids back into scouting or into scouting for the first time. The boy scouts have faced criticism for decades over the man. Turning to the 2016 election, republican president ial candidate, Mike Huckabee is on the defensive after comments he made this weekend about the deal the white house made to curb Irans Nuclear program. This president s Foreign Policy is the most speckless in american history. He is so naive, he would take the israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven. This iran deal should be rejected by both democrats and republicans in congress and the american people. The president as well as several of huckabees opponents have defensed the marks. Michael shure joins us with more on this. Michael what has been said so far about his comments . Reporter were hearing from a lot of corners on this, tony. You heard from the antidefamation lead the head of that Organization Called these comments out of acceptable. Jeb bush said we need to tone down the rhetoric if we have a chance to win the white house. The loudest voice in the room on this issue, tony came from africa, and it came from president obama. We have robust dedates. We look at the facts. There are going to be disagreements, but we just dont fling out attacks like that. Because it doesnt help inform the american people. And you know earlier the president called these marks ridiculous and sad, and Mike Huckabee didnt back away from a confrontation with the president. He wants to stand apart from the fray. He wants to get out there and have his voice heard in the same way that donald trump has been heard. So he responded and got into a little bit of back and forth with the president. He said in the tweet and to that you know, he hes not backing away from comments that have really upset people. But what is different about this tony is that Mike Huckabee, in Foreign Policy magazine going back to 2008 the year he won the iowa caucus as a candidate, he associated himself with the kind of diplomacy the president had in place. So this is a little bit of a change. Back then he said we cannot live with alqaeda but we may be able to live with a continued iran so right there you have a Mike Huckabee who season just six or seven years ago was talking about this in a very very different way. The definition of that was then this is now. So michael, how are voters responding look to huckabee and other candidates go far in this election cycle . Well there are two different questions. Voters arent really responding to huckabee. His numbers have continually gone down in poll after poll both nationally and in iowa. But you look at some of these numbers right now, and i think theres sort of a craze about donald trump, but you see jeb bush and scott walker staying above that fray not engaging in the same way as even marco ruby and lindsay gram because they know as soon as people start dropping out of the race the names of familiar people those small percentages arent going to go to donald trump. All right. Michael shure for us in washington, d. C. Police in ohio are defending the use of pepper spray at a black lives matter conference in downtown cleveland, a bystander recorded it all with a cell phone. Police say it started when a crowd surrounded a police cruiser, holding a teen who was in custody, the officer was trying to clear the road to allow the police car to pass through. The incident is now, were told under review. There are more than a thousand children and mothers being held in Detention Centers after crossing the u. S. mexico border. Erika pitzi is here with that story. Reporter and tony the judges ruling comes after months of legal wrangling. A Class Action Lawsuit was niled calling for the release of the children and their mothers. One mother i spoke to earlier this year risked her life to come from honduras. Now the federal judge says the Detention Center conditions are deplorable. She noted now carlos of the center for human rights says the judge was not persuaded by the governments case at all. The government overreacted to a temporary surge, has no evidence that this was deterring anybody from coming to the United States, and really was a a illadvised misinformed policy adopted in the midst of a crisis and one that needs tend to in the light of sober reflection and logic. The federal government is firing back. The department of Homeland Security expressed disappointment adding it is reviewing the order with the department of justice and will respond by next week. And the federation for American Immigration reform which opposes illegal immigration, says the decision sends a dangerous message by enticing more Central American families to risk their lives by trying to get into the United States. Here is the question erica, what happens to these children and their mothers who are in the centers now . Right. The answer is still up in the air. They have time to hear from the government. They have got to respond to the judges ruling. But what she is saying is that children cannot be in these Detention Centers. So we know they will be released. They have to go to a legal guardian Entity Organization possibly a parent whether or not the parent is the mother who is also being detained thats something were going to have to find out, but no doubt these kids will be getting out of these detenning centers. When that happens, we dont know. Erika appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up next the reason two countries were likely upgraded in the u. S. Report on Human Trafficking. Plus investing in infrastructure a multibillion dollars overhaul for one of the nations busiest airports. The United States and turkey have agreed on the outlines of a plan to push isil back from territory near the syria turkey border. The two countries say they intend to Work Together to create a nearly 70mile safe zone. The u. S. Coalition is already conducting air strikes in the area. Turkey wanted a nofly zone but the white house says that is not going to happen. Its not a nofly zone but its almost having the same effect because only Coalition Aircraft are occupying that air space. Theres no other aircraft up there, other than Coalition Aircraft, which are focused on going after isil. Were joined by the director of the Turkish Research program joining us from washington, d. C. Look, after sitting on the sidelines for hello. Pleasure for most of the last year why has turkey entered the isil fight in this way, now . For a long time turkey wanted in return for kwaping with the United States against isis, it wanted something concrete that it could used to boost up the opposition in syria, such as a safe haven, where opposition groups could rally against the assad regime. The United States i think has given turkey something quite close to a safe haven. I would call it a isis free zone. Its halfway between u. S. And turkey positions. The white house is not saying that this is also not an an area thats open to others so its definitely going to be a safe region for the opposition and i think this is what has brought turkey on board, now that turkey knows it can use this area as a staging ground for opposition groups and also eventually transfer some of the 2 million refugees in turkey into this area as well. I want to come back to that in a second, but i need you to explain a couple of things here. Who is the group wpg . And is turkeys attack on isis really a cover for an attack on syrian kurds and the pkk . Slightly different than that. So what happened in the last year the United States worked and maybe this is a cynical view but it worked closely with the kurds in northern iran. This is a group called pyd that is linked to another group in turkey known as the pkk. So pyd is the syrian group link link linked to the turkish group. And they were success. And it was a major defeat for isis. And one of the reasons isis is so successful in getting recruits is because it is constantly winning. And that makes it attractive for young crazy types who want to join the movement. So the defeat was significant, and it looked like the kurds were going to march westwards and capture the entire turkey Syrian Border from isis. This is when turkey came in because they realized the more that would like the kurds an ally to the United States. There you go. So do you believe turkey is planning ultimately here a military intervention into Northern Syria to prevent syrian kurds from forming their own state . I think a turkish intervention is highly unlikely. Turkey knows that syria is very messy, if it goes in its very hard to come back out. I think turkey is now building its alliance with the United States to preempt a potential kurdish state by making itself the stronger u. S. Ally. It is pushing isis back and if that is successful theyll be capturing a 98mile long territory from the hands of isis and when that happens the last Border Control will be taken from isis and they have been using that to smuggle weapons and fighters so its abilities will be debilitated. I think its a longer plan to cut down supply lines if turkey and washington can capture that 60mile territory. All right. Director of the Turkish Research program at the Washington Institute of near east policy. Thank you. Thank you. The state Department Released its annual report on International Human trafficking. The rankings can have tangible consequences for those who have failed to prevent trafficking. Not only is this a fight we have to attempt, not only do we have a responsibility to bring every aspect of our institutions of our government together in order to push back educate, and make people aware of this but its a fight we absolutely have to win. Its a modern day human rights challenge of enormous proportions. But some critics say politics may have influenced the rankings in the report. Rosiland jordan has more. Reporter perhaps the best way to take a look at the four rankings in the report is to recognize that three of those rankings indicate that a certain country isnt doing enough to stop the problem. People at the very bottom of the list both have a serious Human Trafficking problem, and arent doing anything to try to change the situation. The next step up known as tier 2 watch, means that countries have Serious Problems but are making some sort of token effort perhaps, to try to improve the situation. That is where both malaysia and cuba happen to be in the 2015 report. They are both trying to make legal changes. They are both trying to prosecute those involved in Human Trafficking, but they didnt done enough to actually make a appreciable differences in the problem. In cubas case it is also doing almost nothing according to the u. S. To deal with the problem of forced labor. Now while these countries are escaping the potential financial sanctions that come with being at the bottom of the blacklist, there is considerable room for improvement for these countries, and certainly in the tier above them theres a lot of room for improvement as well. Its only in tier 1 where you are considered to be meeting the minimum standards, and the u. S. Government says it should be even tougher than that. But that is matter for congress. Funerals were held in louisiana for two women killed in last weeks theater shooting. Family and friends also said goodbye to jillian johnson. Police do not have a clear motive but they say the gunman detailed the premeditated attack in his journal. If there is no deal on a Infrastructure Project is worked out, they will have to stop Infrastructure Projects in the summer. California has some of the worst highways in the country. A recent survey rated 65 of major roads in Los Angeles County alone in Poor Condition. Our correspondent has more. Reporter youll see as soon as we get on the highway, its just wild traffic. Reporter this mans commute begins long before sunrise. There are a whole bunch of us who have to wake up in the middle of the night to make it to work by 8 00. Reporter the drive is a slow crawl, more than two hours each way. Over bumpy roads and gridlocked highways. You would think the roads would be a lot better than they are. Reporter its a frustration shared by so many commuters. And it could get worse if congress doesnt act soon. More than half of californias roads are in Poor Condition and need help. A gas tax pays for most roads and bridge projects now. But the Highway Trust Fund is set to go broke friday. The senate and house havent reached any agreement on an extension and that means all of this construction could come to a halt during the busiest months. In louisiana l. A. Were still looking at over 2 billion worth of construction going on. Reporter he says another delay in funding would be a huge blow for the state. How bad are those roads . Reporter statewide we have repaired 600,000 potholes. Reporter and california isnt alone. More than a quarter of the nations major roads and highways are in Poor Condition, costing drivers in l. A. Alone more than 1,000 a year in additional car main ten innocence. The federal gas tax hasnt been raised in two decades, while the cost of road projects have only gone up. Congress havent come up with a longterm fix in ten years. Increase the budget get better roads, and lets do something to get people to work on time under safer conditions. Reporter a message he hopes helps gridlocked lawmakers here. One of the nations busiest and most hated airports is about to get a major overhaul. The plan for new york city laguardia was announced today. What is wrong with our beloved laguardia. Reporter well it is not beloved by anybody, but you have to get there. Laguardia has been here for years. Now the old airport is to be torn down and rebuilt for a cool 4 billion half from private funds, but what about travel infrastructure nationwide rail roads, bridges, that sort of thing. They are also sagging with advanced age and overuse. Welcome to new yorks new airport. Reporter the new 4 billion airport, 21st century style. Its a long way from the airport joe biden was rude about just last year teased in this video by new yorks governor. A famous person once said and i quote, if i blindfolded you and took you to laguardia in new york you must think i must be in some thirdworld country. [ laughter ] now who do you think said that . Reporter joe biden, of course. But he wasnt alone. Most new yorkers are none too fond of the airport these days either. Dirty. Cramped. Hot. Delayed. It makes you think twice about flying in and out of laguardia. This is my first trip here and probably my last. Reporter the new york governor says cooperation from delta means the old laguardia can be torn down and rebuilt. This is what new york deserves and has deserved for a long time. Reporter and talk about long time the areas commuters suffered terrible delays last week on new jerseys rail lines, highlights the many issues on the countrys biggest rail corridor. In may this year infrastructure weaknesses were brought into sharp focus with the death of eight amtrak passengers just outside of philadelphia where automated breaking systems that could have prevented the crash werent installed. The first steps to set our economy on a firmer foundation. Reporter designed to reboot the struggling economy partly through infrastructure spending. Some got off of the ground others fell by the wayside. Future Infrastructure Projects might be funded at the state level. Were going to see the use of more technology more con against shun tool deployments as a way of raising local revenue and that will allow the federal government to pull back a little bit to a more appropriate role. Reporter right now, people at laguardia and the people who use it can expect at least five years before it improves. But then there will be a single terminal and modern pass transportation. So for the first time in our lives well be able to get to laguardia other than by taxi. Can you imagine the next five years, though . Oh my goodness. Hello, kennedy airport. [ laughter ] thank you. The auto maker Fiat Chrysler is facing the biggest civil penalty ever imposed be i the government. 105 million fine is the result of an investigation into 23 different recalls affecting more than 11 million vehicles some were for defecting fuel tanks. The company is also buying back hundreds of cars and suvs to get them off of the road. Some firefighters have been injured while trying to control a wildfire in california. Kevin joins us now with more on this kevin . Thats right. Were not going to be seeing much of a change in this area. Look at how dry it is. We are in the dry season we do expect wildfires, but with the drought situation that has been going on we are concentrating on this area up here. It started on saturday very quickly it actually increased in intensity. Were talking abu hammam alshami 1500 acres right now. Take a look at some more video that has come out. They are having a difficult time getting to the fire because of the geography. Not many roads going into the road as well. Some of the communities had to be evacuated. Were talking about 15 containment now. It is still going to remain quite dry for this region. The relative humidity is only in the teens. And in sacramento were talking about 103 tomorrow. It wont be that warm where the fire is but it is still going to be in the 90s, and the temperature is only going to be going up. And in alaska were dealing with wildfire season as well. They are predicting that we could be seeing one of the worth fires in wildfire season here. Were talking about 291 active fires across the region. We have seen over 700 all season long and 4 million acres have been burned. Wildfires are common across alaska but they also release a lot of carbon as you can see with that smoke, a big, big problem in that region. So it has its knock on effect as well. Absolutely. Off florida coast the coast guard said it found the boat of two missing boys. Hacked with just one text. Nearly a billion smartphone users are at risk for an attack. So they have celebrated super bowl nba titles and even the world series but people in boston wont be bringing home the gold any time soon. It called off it bid to host the 2022 olympics. The boston mayor objected to making the city the guarantor for any debt stemming from the games. And for a look at what is coming up at the top of the hour Richelle Carey is here. All right. Tony coming up at 8 00 the fight against isil turkey is ready to help the u. S. Stop the group, but its more complicated than two countries against isil. So who is helping . Who is against it . And the strange partnerships it is creating. The boy scouts of america is ending its national ban on openly gay leaders. The decisions now goes to local councils. Are you an open and vowed homosexual . And i was taken aback by the question. It felt like a question out of the 1950s. Were going to meet one scout leader whos troop charter was revoked because of his sexual orientation. And in other news excitement in san antonio, the iconic alamo is now a World Heritage site. Well meet what the mission will receive now and the pivotal role it played in texas history. Yes, im an excited texan. Yes, you are. Android users be ware. Hackers have discovered a way to easily hack your phone. Jake explain, please. Yes, tony this is a very bad one. It affects roughly 950 Million People or 95 of the user base of android, the most common form of handset smartphone in the world. Typically you have to open a file that gets into your phone and messes with it. In this case all it takes is a text message. You can get into a piece of code known as stage fright. It handles media in your home like photographs, videos things like that and by sending a carefully crafted piece of media, the phone will basically allow it to get into its central code and allow the remote user to suddenly take control. Control the camera remote without knowing about it perhaps wipe the phone, and it doesnt take any actions on your part. Here comes the text message. You may be asleep. Here is the preview of the media that shows up on your phone. Then the user the remote user can wipe it away. And by either tapping on the media, rotating the phone, or in any way interacting the phone, you can set off the code. This is not something we have seen in a while, but it is a very bad thing, toni. Yeah smartphone not smart enough it seems. So what is the next step here . Presumably google is all over this thing, right . They were alerted by this company which discovered this hack and they have gone public evidently because google has not gone public. Google says it has offered up the patch and pushed it out. But apple can push a Software Update out to your phone directly. In the case of android, because they are made by all sorts of different people it is taking a long time for this to get out there. The nice thing is again, this company did it themselves. They havent seen any instances of it done in the wild but it shows this is a very serious vulnerability for an incredible number of people. Well if i have an android, do i have to wait or what do i do if i have an android . Really the only thing to do is to look for that message that says do you want a firmware update. As soon as you see it go ahead and do it these handset makers are going to make this fix at some point. Where is my blackberry. Yeah. Jake thanky. Thanks tony. The world robot make you think of nuts and bolts but that could change. Reporter industrial robots like these are strong dangerous tools. Colder hard arms programmed to perform the same repetitive task. But now a team of researchers are developing what is known as soft ro bots. So a soft robot is inherently safe, because when it bumps into you, it will be soft. What we would like is to be able to make systems that humans can collaborate with. People can Work Together with the ro bots and you dont have to have the fare that robot is going to crush somebody. Reporter its the Natural World that has been the source of many of the designs. They took inspiration from the octopus. And they mimicked its mussels, using silicon granules and pressurized air to produce an arm they believe could make robotic surgery considerably safer. If you have a rigid robot, you can easily damage a patient. And really exploring the idea of soft robots will make an enormous difference because we have a robot is that effectively not capable of injuring the patient. Even though we have a very close contact between the robot and the patient. They are also looking at the hooves of goats. This man got a scholarship from the government to look at how robots could be made more mobile. Most of the robots they have just wheels which are not suitable for the land that we have in ecuador, because we have farms in hills, and we also have obstacles like rocks and trunks so they are not going to be able to work in that kind of area. Reporter other members of the team are looking at human arm muscles to better understand how they work with tendons to control limbs. Others are mimicking how doctors look for lumps below the skin. These innovations and techniques are still years from being rolled out, but the team believe they will form the basis of a new generation of softer and more friendly robots. That is all of our time. Thanks for being with us in new york city. Richelle carey is back in just a couple of minutes. Hi everyone this is Al Jazeera America. Im Richelle Carey. John siegenthaler is off. Safe zone the u. S. And turkey plan to carve out an isilfree territory in syria. Could it draw the countries deeper into syrias war. A delicate balance, president obama pushes for peace and reform in east africa. The problem is he never walked his talk. But some are